One may be tempted to think of the De Tomaso Mangusta as nothing more than a poor man’s Lamborghini Miura. This period photo should be quick to dispel such notions.

And if you’ll feast your eyes on the Mangusta prototype, with its front bumper so low it’s positioned to shatter every knee on impact, you’ll perhaps conclude that even in spite of its comically bad weight distribution of 32/68 and its tendency for instant decomposition, the Mangusta was serious business.